This Sunday, your choir will perform an aria from the opera Alcina by George Frideric Handel.  The song is “Verdant Meadows” and in the opera is sung by Ruggiero, a knight, when he realizes the island he’s on is really a desert inhabited by monsters.  Even though he knows the island is an illusion, its beauty will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Verdant meadows, woodland pleasant,
To my heart thy beauty sings,
Flowers fair, swift flowing rivers,
All thy fragrance, all thy flowing,
Lends my brooding spirit wings.
 
Verdant meadows, woodlands pleasant,
Changeless may thy beauty be.
In the flow of time unceasing,
And my heart that shared thy gladness
Feel as now my joy in thee.
 
Verdant meadows, woodland pleasant,
To my heart thy beauty sings;
To my heart thy beauty sings.

To sing Handel, singers must get a full, rich, broad tone and smooth phrasing.  Handel combined Italian vocal style with German grandeur and power.  Well, we’re amateurs, but we have a professional director.  See how well we meet this test next Sunday!